Darth Varan
During the Clone Wars, Varan was part of the Jedi Order, serving as an apprentice to Plo Koon. While a Jedi, Varan participated in several important battles of the Clone Wars, including the First Battle of Geonosis and Battle of Ryloth. When Order 66 was executed, Plo Koon was killed, and the Jedi Order was destroyed. Varan joined the Galactic Empire, and served as an inquisitor under Darth Vader. During this time, Varan took on the name Third Brother and received a double-bladed spinning lightsaber. After the death of the Grand Inquisitor in 4 BBY, Varan competed with other inquisitors for leadership of the Inquisitorius. While an inquisitor, Varan studied the holocrons of the ancient Sith Emperor Vitiate, in hopes of gaining mass power and increasing his lifespan. Sometime after the deaths of the Fifth Brother, Seventh Sister, and Eighth Brother on Malachor in 3 BBY, the Inquisitorius was disbanded. Varan left the Galactic Empire. He continued studying holocrons of Vitiate, as well as studying holocrons of Darth Sidious. Varan was also trained in the Sith ways by Darth Spike. In 2 BBY, a year after leaving the Empire, Varan was declared a Sith Lord. A few years after the Battle of Endor, the Sith Empire secretly reformed on Dromund Kaas. The Rule of Two was outlawed, and Darth Bane's legacy was almost completely destroyed. Varan earned a spot on the Dark Council. Following the reformation of the Sith Empire, Darth Varan traveled to the ancient Sith homeworld of Korriban along with a team of Sith Lords and architects in the hopes of resettling the planet. The group stumbled upon Darth Bane's tomb and statue in the ancient Sith Academy. Varan quickly destroyed the statue and desecrated the tomb, and ordered reconstruction of the ancient execution chamber. During the First Order's rise to power, the majority of the Sith Empire remained hidden on Dromund Kaas and Korriban, watching the conflict from afar. Varan traveled to Dathomir in hope of learning the dark side powers of the Nightsisters, who had been wiped out during the Clone Wars. Varan managed to collect tomes of the Nightsisters and other relics, and also convinced several Nightbrothers to return with him to Dromund Kaas. There, the Sith imbued several Nightbrothers with dark magic, similar to how the Nightsisters had with Savage Opress, and cloned them and several other Nightbrothers. Eventually, the Sith Empire had an army of Nightbrothers at their disposal. Eventually, around 44 ABY, the Sith Empire revealed themselves and entered a massive war with the Republic and the Jedi. Darth Spike acted as the leader of the Empire during this period. When Spike was killed during a battle on Coruscant, Varan proclaimed himself leader of the Sith Empire. He deceived the Jedi into thinking that he was dead and they had won the war. In 45 ABY, Varan infiltrated the Jedi Council under the disguise of Master Varansa. Kahar Zamet later saw through this disguise and defeated Varan, forcing him to flee back to the Dromund Kaas. Very shortly after he returned, he rounded up the Imperial military and attacked Kamino. The next morning, the Republic came to Kamino and attacked. The Imperial forces were defeated, and Varan retreated to Dromund Kaas once more. A week later, Varan made a final push to attack Tython. Once again, the Imperials were defeated, and Varan was decapitated aboard his flagship by Jedi Master Kahar Zamet. Most of the Imperials on the flagship were captured or killed by the Republic while the rest of the fleet retreated back to Dromund Kaas. However, one of Varan's followers managed to stay hidden aboard the flagship. After the Republic left it and fired upon it with their ships to destroy it, the follower took Varan's remains, including his head, and fled in a stealth starship, undetected by the Republic, to Korriban. After summoning several other Sith to Korriban, Varan was given a proper burial. After Varan's death, the Sith Empire was in disarray, split into several smaller sects with different Sith leading them. Four years later, in 49 ABY, Varan's apprentice, Dalan Serenti, now wearing heavy armor due to suffering severe injuries, returned to Korriban and dug up Varan's corpse. He used the dark side of the Force to re-attach Varan's head to his body without leaving any marks, as if he had never been decapitated, and give Varan life again. Varan rewarded his apprentice by healing his injuries, allowing him to discard the armor. Varan traveled to Dromund Kaas and managed to unite the Sith sects back into the Sith Empire, and once again became its leader. This time, however, he decided he would plot from the shadows until the time was right to rule the galaxy. In 51 ABY, Darth Varan traveled to the Coruscant shipping docks. He had his war droids ambush Chancellor Palarus and his guards, but they failed. As Palarus attempted to escape, Varan rolled a thermal detonator towards the chancellor's shuttle, destroying it and wounding the chancellor. Palarus ordered his guards to leave him, believing his injuries were too severe and he would only slow down the guards. Once the guards were gone, Varan emerged from the shadows and healed Palarus, as well as gave him immortal life. Palarus, believing Varan was somebody attempting to do good for the galaxy, pledged to serve him. Varan deceived Palarus into believing that they were helping the galaxy, and by the time he caught onto Varan's plan, it was too late for him to return to the Republic. In 1189 ABY, the Dark V era started, in which Varan and the Sith Empire, now reformed into Darth Varan's Galactic Empire, secretly began launching numerous terrorist attacks and bombings on the Republic. One important bombing took place on Coruscant that killed the Grand Master of the Jedi Order and six Jedi Council members. During the Dark V era, Varan made Palarus the Supreme Chief of his Empire and also managed to ally with Death Watch. Sometime during the Dark V era, Varan also traveled to Trandosha and found a Trandoshan powerful in the dark side of the Force. He named him Darth Sovechk and took him as an apprentice. In 1199 ABY, Varan decided it was finally time for him to rule the galaxy. He started by having Palarus release the Force Virus, a virus that would affect only force users and kill them after twelve hours, including force users who were eternal, on Tython, Duraan, and Coruscant. Many Jedi were killed, and Varan moved his fleet to attack Coruscant. Varan himself traveled to the surface of the planet and helped attack the Jedi Temple along with Dalan and Lord Scourge. With many of the Jedi killed or turned to the dark side, and the others in hiding, Varan declared himself Galactic Emperor. However, a resistance group called Twelve Jedi began to fight against Varan's Empire. Death Watch had set up mining operations on Utapau, and were transporting minerals to Varan's Space Station, now above Utapau, to make superweapons out of them. Varan himself was overseeing the operation. Twelve Jedi arrived on Utapau and disrupted the operation by detonating explosives at the mining locations and stealing a datapad. Varan was almost killed by a missile. It missed him, but was close enough to cause his jetpack to malfunction, sending him flying into a lake. Varan managed to survive without a scratch and returned to his space station to head back to Coruscant. Twelve Jedi went on to disrupt Varan's operations on Duraan and Belsavis. Varan later went to Hoth to check up on operations there. Twelve Jedi went there to disrupt his operations, however Varan sensed that this would happen and waited until Twelve Jedi reached his ice fortress on a glacier before going there to attack them. Although several of his forces were killed and none of the enemy forces were killed, Varan succeeded in driving Twelve Jedi off of Hoth and back to Coruscant. Three days later, 1200 ABY began, and Varan's Empire celebrated the new year. However, the Jedi Temple on Coruscant was attacked by Twelve Jedi. A bomb was detonated there which killed several of Varan's forces while also sacrificing four of the Jedi. The destruction heavily damaged the temple, making it so Varan could no longer use it as a base. He received the news while giving a speech with Palarus at Galactic Stadium, which caused him to get angry and abruptly end the speech. A few minutes later, he and Palarus emerged at Galactic Stadium again to give a speech about the attack. Later that night, Varan held a party for the high-ranking officials in his empire, as well as some rich civilians. Agent One, Two, Three, Four, and Five were introduced to the public at the party. Twelve Jedi detonated a bomb there which killed all the agents except Agent One. Later, Varan managed to capture Twelve Jedi. They were taken to Galactic Stadium, where the next Pit of Death, an event in which prisoners were pitted against each other for entertainment, was about to begin. Twelve Jedi easily killed the prisoners there, and so Varan challenged them to fight him and his commanders. However, Ordius Skirata and the Mandalorians attacked Galactic Stadium during the event. Most of Twelve Jedi was able to escape on the Mandalorian shuttles, but Jason Alrean and Boomdodger Prosstang were captured by Varan and Sovechk. The two Jedi were transported to Varan's Space Station for interrogation. While Varan returned to Palarus's office, Lord Scourge and Darth Sovechk stayed behind on the space station. Twelve Jedi and their allies, the Mandalorians and Defenders of Freedom, assaulted the Senate Tower and accessed the elevator to the space station there. Boomdodger and Jason were freed, and R3-T3 destroyed the space station, taking down several comm channels. Varan sent his Elite Sith Enforcers to finish off Twelve Jedi while he, Palarus, Agent One, and Darth Sovechk went to Galactic Stadium for the next Pit of Death match. However, when they got to Galactic Stadium, Twelve Jedi was there, ready for a battle. A massive battle broke out in both the stadium grounds and the sports club above. Eventually, the Mandalorians and Defenders of Freedom joined in. Throughout the course of the battle, Varan's commanders fell. Agent One was killed when a blast copter crashed into him, Darius Vizsla was stabbed through the stomach by Ordius Skirata and tumbled to his death, Dalan Serenti was shot in the head by Commander Shadow, and Scourge was killed when Boomdodger sliced him across the chest. Darth Sovechk's lightsaber was shattered during the battle, but he managed to escape off world back to Dromund Kaas. Eventually, only Varan was left, dueling Kahar. As he gained the upper hand in the duel, he was suddenly shot in the hand by Palarus. Angered by Palarus's betrayal, he crushed the pistol and force pushed the Supreme Chief against the wall of the sports club. As he prepared to stab Palarus in the throat, Varan was suddenly stabbed through the back by Kahar. Mortally wounded, Varan fell to his knees and died. His spirit attempted to escape, however Kahar destroyed it with the Force, ending the Sith Lord's threat forever. Behind the Scenes Darth Varan was first created as a minor antagonist for the story The Empire's Strike and Conquest. He was originally supposed to be killed, however was later changed to have faked his death and became the main antagonist of the series. He was killed at the end of it, with the author later choosing to revive him as the main antagonist of The Great Demise storyline. Category:Jedi Category:Rise of the Empire Era Category:Galactic Civil War Category:New Republic Era Category:Galactic Empire Category:Sith